The Architects Newspaper Announces MADWORKSHOP’s New 2017 Fellows!

The Martin Architecture and Design Workshop (MADWORKSHOP), a Santa Monica, California–based foundation focused on incubating student design projects into built work, has announced its 2017 design fellows. The five students—Heeje Yang, Jayson Champlain, Jeremy Carman, Belinda Pak, and Joseph Chang—are all currently fourth-year students at the University of Southern California’s (USC) Bachelor of Architecture program. A sixth, previously-announced fellow, Riccardo Blumer, is a practicing architect and researcher from Varese, Italy.

The six fellows will spend the next year being incubated by MADWORKSHOP as they elaborate designs for a series of individual pilot projects. The fellows’ projects, according to a press release issued by the foundation, will focus on MADWORKSHOP’s 2017 design theme: Emergency Architecture.

Yang will work on improving the designs for the Chair Six prototype, a foldable chair designed by 2014 fellow Yuan Yao. Champlain and Carman, both of whom participated in the MADWORKSHOP-funded Homeless Studio taught at USC last semester, will partner to develop innovative approaches to the safety- and privacy-related aspects of temporary, post-disaster shelter design within the context of large sports stadiums. Pak will work on prototype designs for an emergency wristband that can convey medical and contact information while Chang will design a backpack that converts into a stretcher that could be carried by a single person during emergency situations. Finally, Blumer will develop research on the design of socially-conscious architecture through the use of innovative technology and representational techniques.

MADWORKSHOP was founded by David C. Martin and Mary Klaus Martin in 2015 with the aim of supporting “the next generation of inventors and designers with a focus on technological craftsmanship.” The organization funded an elective studio at USC during the Fall 2016 semester that focused on developing a rapid re-housing prototype that could be deployed in as little as two weeks. The studio, taught by MADWORKSHOP acting director Sofia Borges, a faculty member of USC School of Architecture, and R. Scott Mitchell, owner/principal of L.A.-based Gigante AG, partnered with non-denominational ministry Hope of the Valley and consulted with nonprofit housing developers and city agencies while developing their prototype. Also in 2016, the organization also installed the Sanke furniture system in the courtyard of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. That installation, a colorful collection of tables and chairs designed to operate as a deconstructed communal table, was developed by 2015 fellow Sonia Lui.